Poster by: Grzegorz Laszuk.
On Saturday and Sunday, 22-23 June at 7 pm KOMUNA// WARSZAWA is presenting another RE//MIX dance performance, which came to life as a result of a competition held in association with the Institute of Music and Dance. UNISONO by young dancer and choreographer, Aleksandra Borys, is drawing inspiration from the work of Anna Halprin, pioneer of dance improvisation. After the Saturday premiere Arek Gruszczyński will host a meeting with the artists.
Considered a foremother of the hippie movement, Anna Halprin focused in her work mostly on the origins of dance and its primeval vitality. She was interested in the structure and dynamics of movement, which she would then use as choreographic material. Dance was for her the goal in itself; she would dismiss the notion that only professionals may engage with it.
At the end of the 1940s, Halprin moved from New York – the centre of contemporary dance – to San Francisco, where only three small dance ensembles operated. In 1955 she founded the San Francisco Dancers’ Workshop, which became an important educational centre attracting such artists as Trisha Brown, Yvonne Rainer, or John Cage. Halprin drew her inspiration from the Bauhaus and its idea of getting involved in the process of (co-)creating different artforms. She would invite representatives of different arts to join her projects. That is how her scores would came to life.
The scores were sets of instructions, operating principles and assignments. Not only dancers, but all the artists involved in a project could use them and cooperate with each other on an equal footing. The scores were different from classic choreographies in that they allowed ambiguity, equivocation. This required from the performer a freshness of action as well as awareness and enormous concentration.
The studio where Halprin worked was located in the open air, which prompted the choreographer to set her dance performances not only on theatre stage but also in any other place possible. She treated movement as an effect of the situation faced by the dancer. All the elements of the performance were equal to her, none of the media used could dominate.
In my RE//MIX I want to find out, together with my fellow artists, how Anna Halprin’s methods and modes of work translate into our reality. I am curious in how, after so many years of a very specific work in a closed studio, the fact of coming out into “wide open spaces” will influence the body and its movement, and my choreographic practice. I want to find out how the observations and reflections taking place in the course of my work will correspond to and diverge from what Anna Halprin arrived at. Inspired by her work, I follow her motto that “a dancer is an element of a picture”, says Aleksandra Borys.
conception:Aleksandra Borys
realisation and performing:Aleksandra Borys, Marysia Zimpel, Justyna Calińska
costumes:Małgosia Bochenek
production:komuna// warszawa, Aleksandra Borys
partners:Institute of Music and Dance, Adam Mickiewicz Isntitute, Art Stations Foundation by Grażyna Kulczyk
sponsors:Grupa Open S.A. Diadora Polska, No gravity SPA, Nowhere Man Beata Calińska
Thank zou to:Agata Barełkowska, Michał Bieliński, Jacek Chmaj, Joanna Klass, Joanna Leśnierowska, Weronika Pelczyńska
Aleksandra Boryshas graduated from CODARTS/Rotterdam Dance Academy and the Ballet School in Łódź, Poland. She has cooperated with Aitana Cordero Vico, Ugo Dehaes, Lia Haraki, Joanna Leśnierowska, Marysia Stokłosa, Marten Spangberg and Mimosa Moize. She has received scholarships from IMPACT12 (PACT in Essen); DanceWeb 2011 programme (ImPulsTanz Festival in Vienna); European programme for young choreographers Tour d’Europe des Chorégraphes; Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Her solo lost in details, created during the residency Solo Project Art Stations Foundation at Stary Browar in Poznań, was invited to compete for Prix Jardin d’Europe as part of the eXplore festival in Bucharest among 14 other projects from young choreographers. In 2012 the solo qualified for the Aerowaves 20 list and was selected to be presented at the Polish Dance Platform in Poznań. Currently, Aleksandra is a receiving a scholarship from the international programme for young choreographers SPAZIO. (www.aleksborys.wordpress.com)
How to get there from the city centre: by tram – routes 7, 8 or 22, or bus – route 517
(get off at Zieleniecka)
or by SKM (get off at Warszawa Wschodnia).
TICKETS:PLN 10/15 (rezerwacja@komuna.warszawa.pl)
Initiated in 2010, the RE// MIX series is a display of premiere productions referencing back to classic artworks, mostly in the area of theatre and dance, but also literature and film. The original pieces, some slightly forgotten, once changed the awareness of the people who deal with “strange” theatre today, a theatre that is multidisciplinary, searching, verging on visual theatre, performance art, plastic arts and social actions. They form a specific cultural canon, define tastes and styles, constitute a self-definition for their own sources and inspirations – act as points of reference.
RE// MIX 2013
curator: Magda Grudzińska, conception of the cycle:Tomasz Plata
The project is co-funded by the Warsaw city hall and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and is implemented in association with the Institute of Music and Dance.
